Texas Woman’s University recently acquired an archival collection chronicling the life and service of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing and health informatics.
Born in 1820 in Florence, Italy, Florence Nightingale authored more than 150 books and published materials relating to health care. She was known for making hospitals safer and cleaner and for lowering mortality rates for hospitalized soldiers during the Crimean War. Her statistical data on morbidity and mortality form the basis of what is now the field of health informatics.
Housed in TWU Libraries, the Nightingale Collection was created by alumnus and former nursing faculty member Tony Paterniti. It features some 350 pieces of ephemera, books, artifacts, letters, and additional materials written by and related to Nightingale. Notably, the collection includes the first editions of Nightingale’s groundbreaking publication, Notes on Nursing.
“This collection is about more than nursing sentimentality. Rather, the collection paints a fuller picture of this complex woman who founded what we now know as professional nursing,” said Stephanie Woods, dean of the TWU College of Nursing. “I could not be prouder to have this collection at TWU. I believe the collection will draw students, nurses, informaticists, historians and women’s studies scholars to TWU.”